Testimony of Jürgen Böhnhardt

The only witness today was Uwe Böhnhardt’s father. In contrast to his wife and to the father of Uwe Mundlos, Jürgen Böhnhardt did not show a specific talkativeness and, above all, made no attempts to lay the blame for the development of his son on others.

The witness described the disputes concerning his son’s Nazi attitudes and clothing, disputes which had already been the subject of his wife’s testimony. The parents had not allowed him to wear Nazi symbols or combat boots or listen to Nazi music at home. However, the witness went on to state, these disputes had never been of a particular depth, their son had withdrawn when these issues arose. He had never suspected or thought possible that his son’s right-wing ideology could lead to the crimes charged in the indictment.

Asked about close friends of his son, he named Zschäpe and Mundlos, whom his son had both met in 1996/1997, accused Wohlleben and Gerlach as well as André Kapke.

After “the Three” had gone underground, acquaintances of his son had acted as go-betweens and transported clothing and money – DM 900 for Uwe Böhnhardt and DM 700 for a lawyer – to them. In 1999, 2000 and 2002 he and his wife had met their son as well as Mundlos and Zschäpe. During the last meeting, “the Three” had stated that they would not under any circumstances surrender. This would seem to indicate that they had not only spent the entire time together, but also that they had knowingly chosen to go and to stay underground.

Jürgen Böhnhardt made an emphatic and very touching apology to the victims of the NSU – the first apology to be heard in these proceedings which was forthright and without any minimization. He described the crimes committed by his son and the other NSU members as vicious and acknowledged that he too had made mistakes in dealing with his son.